I don't know if anyone else faced problems with paypal before , but this is the first and last time I will deal through them as they have been a pain since I opened an account with them, their service is worse than local governments in backward countries, every time i send them a complaint i get an automated email reply and their help lines are even worse, "no sir we cannot do that", is the common line .
My advice to you before you get your money stuck in paypal is to study the long list of complaints about paypal on the internet, just type paypal complaints on yahoo or any search engine.

[Edited at 2003-07-28 08:11]

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Besides for their rather high fees for accepting credit cards (of which I was, of course, aware before signing up with them), I have had nothing but good experiences with and praise for PayPal. I've used them (both to send and to receive money) for about three years now. I did have a major problem about a year ago and not only did they quickly send me extensive emails on the steps necessary to fix the problem, they also called me personally to make sure everything was running/functioning as it should be.
I know there is a lot of negative press about PayPal but I am one of those who cannot complain.
And I do hope your problem(s) eventually get straightened out.
P.S. When I started using PayPal I was living in Germany (my last 2 years there) - even all the related changes when I moved back to the USA went smoothly.

[Edited at 2003-07-28 16:35]

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The trick seems to be to work out any kinks, requirements, restrictions, BEFORE you have money there.

However, their web site and information are frequently misleading (For example: It says "Send money to anyone with an email," which may not actually be possible if that person does not have a credit card).

It is almost impossible to find any links on their web site to contact them (They have some but frequently do not lead you to anything). I almost lost money with them, because they established new requirements, restrictions on my account once I had money in the account, but not when I signed up. Then my money was stuck, as you say.

I finally worked it out by going to the Better Business Bureau web site, where I did find an email contact for PayPal, which I wrote. They responded immediately, and agreed to cancel the payments I had received from my client, who then sent my payment by other means.

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I use PayPal primarily to receive money from European clients. So far, I have not had any problem, their phone support has been satisfactory, and no reasonable alternative seems to exist. All competing companies seem to have rather odd business models that fail to match my needs. If anybody can tell me of a reasonable alternative, especially one that serves Arab countries (which PayPal does not), I would be grateful.

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I note that the people with positive experiences in this respect are living in the USA. I've had mixed experiences. I was unable to reclaim the initial deduction taken from my account because I once put in an incorrect code. I, too, found it impossible to get email replies from them. But thanks to PayPal, I have accepted work from people I didn't know because they were able to pay me straight away with PayPal. From the UK, it may even be cheaper for me to pay people elsewhere via PayPal than by bank transfer. But only if they have an existing PayPal account, because it takes a while for a new account to become operational. It's a useful back-up, not a substitute.

[Edited at 2003-07-28 12:29]

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